Just finished ice skating... - 34th email from Hong Kong

Dear all,

Last week, the Zone Leaders asked us for our input on what we should do for our Zone Activity. The suggestions we had: rent out a football pitch and play a big game (one of the Zone Leaders is 6ft and a pretty big football fan), or hire someone to teach us Tai Chi or Kung Fu. Both of these were quickly thrown out, and we ended up going ice skating. All of the wonders of China are right at our feet, and we do something that we could easily do back home.

Oh well. Maybe I'm just a little bitter because I spent most of my time wobbling and a slight amount of time falling down, whereas some of the other missionaries (mostly the ones from Utah) were significantly more graceful than me. But I have come up with a good new idiom to describe my feelings on the matter: it doesn't matter how good you are at something, so long as you are better than little Chinese girls at it.

The native Sister Missionaries hadn't been ice skating before (it's not really a tropical sport) and as such spent a little of their time wobbling, and most of their time falling down.

So we met with K yesterday, and it was easy to tell that he had some important news. We had explained that, as his baptismal date is next moves, we might not both be there. He then, yesterday told us, that he'd been thinking about his baptism and how he wanted both of us there, and had been praying to know what to do. He then found a pamphlet we had given him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ; about Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. He had forgotten about it, but when he read it, he noticed some paragraphs that talked about not delaying baptism, and felt strongly that he should be baptised sooner. He told us he wants to be sure he is safe, because he never knows when he might "crash" and suddenly die, and he wants Eternal Life.

As such, his baptismal date has been moved forward to 8th June. He pointed out that the first time he came to the church for a lesson was the 9th of May, making it exactly a month since he first started learning about the church. That's pretty fast, but he's certainly ready.

A lot of times on my mission, I've looked back on the notes that Tim Dick wrote for me at my setting apart and pondered the things that President Howes said. One thing that's always worried me was that he said "No matter how talented you are, you will never convert anyone." Previously, in times when no matter how hard I work, we haven't seemed to be able to find any investigators, I've wondered if this simply means that on my mission I won't have the chance to see anyone I teach get baptised. But this week, I realised that actually it's a blessing - I have been blessed with a knowledge that no investigators will ever get converted to me - they will be converted to the Gospel.

This is certainly the case with K. I read his Progress Record, and Elder Sharp had basically written for his first lesson, "nothing special - likes learning English". He later told us that he actually really didn't like learning English before meeting us. It was his worst subject - he came in the hopes of learning about the truth of our message. While he may like us a lot - enough to want us to attend his baptism and eat lunch with us, his conversion is not to the missionaries, nor to any church members, but to the Gospel itself. In a month he has developed a genuine testimony of God, strong enough to withstand pressure from his closest family members and friends - he is thrilled to invite them to meet with us and discuss the change he's making in his life.

Tuesday was another fun opportunity to teach several investigators at once; We had K, J H D (If it makes it easier, his name in English is Brother T - Hing Daih means brother) and another man, Mr W. Because we weren't sure if either Brother T or K could be there, we had planned to teach whomever would attend, and then suddenly we had three investigators instead of one. So again we resorted to the DVD trick - we had planned to show Brother T parts of Special Witnesses of Christ, which features testimonies from the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve. As we had pretty much a class to teach, we watched it with all of them and then bore testimony at the end. It was certainly an interesting experience, as K acted pretty much as a fellowshipper, telling Brother T about his own experience quitting tea. K is a fairly typical Chinese person, and told us that at home, he wouldn't ever drink water, but instead would always just drink tea, so it was a bit of an adjustment for him, but not too big of a deal - the hardest time now is just when he gets up in the morning (me too - I'm sure a cup of tea would help me wake up quickly too, but I'll avoid such substance abuse anyway).

I love you all - I hope Mum had a fun time at the Osmond concert. It's always fun telling other missionaries how you two joined the church. I tell them that my dad found the church while hitchhiking in Canada, and my Mum found it through the Osmonds. Then I have to explain the gangs of middle-aged Sisters we have in the church over here, and they're always amazed at the impact the Osmonds have had over in England.

Have a fun time at work, school, play, music lessons, TV and whatever other things you'll all do this week,

Lots of Love,

Elder Matthew Loffhagen

羅 長 老